“The White Lotus” Season 3 — once again scripted, directed, and created by Mike White — begins with a moment of zen. Ben Kutchins’ camera snakes up a tree branch as a monkey looks through the Thailand woods into the newest location of the titular resort while a guest takes a meditation class.
“Calm our chattering monkey minds, and find what is timeless,” the Lotus employee remarks — a self-help axiom that doubles nicely as a thesis statement for the characters we’ll soon meet. It’s only a matter of time before the harshness of reality pierces the presumed tranquility of this idyllic setting. In short, welcome back to another season of mayhem and murder at the White Lotus.
If this latest reiteration of White’s award-winning series feels familiar, that’s a feature not a bug. As indicated by the Buddhist statues that dot the property of the Thai outpost, this season is inherently wrapped in the ideas and tenets of the religion, all of which flow as freely as the many bodies of water that dot the Lotus as four groups of characters descend upon the Lotus, each seeking their own Nirvana away from home.
For the research triangle Ratliff family, with patriarch hedge fund manager Timothy (Jason Isaacs), matriarch Victoria (Parker Posey), and their three children Saxon (Patrick Schwarzenegger), Piper (Sarah Catherine Hook) and Lochlan (Sam Nivola), it’s about some much-needed family time away from work. For childhood girlfriends Kate (Leslie Bibb), Laurie (Carrie Coon) and Hollywood star Jaclyn (Michelle Monaghan), it’s a reunion to reconnect amongst big changes. For age gap couple Chelsea (Aimee Lou Wood) and Rick (Walton Goggins), it’s to find larger meaning. For returning character Belinda (Natasha Rothwell), it’s a chance to cultivate new skills in service of a potential new start.
Everyone’s looking for something, but most importantly, to find themselves.
The first season dove into money, the second sex, and this one drives home the self. Previous seasons explored ideas reflective of the environment around the respective Lotus locales, and this does the same. Thailand and the spirituality of Buddhism become a tapestry for themes of identity, life and death, generational inheritance and more. Some of these explorations dive right into White’s satirical wheelhouse, where Jaclyn, Kate and Laurie grapple with their looks on the other side of 40 or generalized buzzwords like wellness or self-care.
Others are more ethereal like Rick bitterly struggling with his past and future, or Timothy reckoning with the idea that he might lose everything. More than previous installments, the search for the self clouds “The White Lotus” with a darker tone, one that’s quite the juxtaposition against the sunny skies of Thailand. As a result, the show can feel a little hellish at times, something White himself mentioned by stating the season is “a little bit of Hotel California — you can check in, but you can never leave.” For these characters, the Lotus is purgatory masquerading as paradise.
As such, the season is infused with an appropriate sense of dread as most of the main characters seem to be running away from problems or searching for a deeper meaning — a thesis aptly put when a character asks another if they’re “looking for something or hiding from something.” Across the six episodes of eight sent for critics to review, “The White Lotus” is building to a series of confrontations in the final two installments that are far weightier than previous seasons. Getting through all this foundation-building often means prioritizing certain groups of characters over others; White’s very invested in the Goggins and Isaacs-related plots, in particular. This causes some characters to be short changed — notably Rothwell and the triumvirate of Coon, Bibb and Monaghan — to a point where some aspects of their stories come across as repetitive and more siloed than in the past. All begin to get more focus in the back half of the provided episodes, but the early stages are unbalanced as a result as White digs especially deep into the Ratliff family. Lotus employees Gaitok (Tayme Thapthimthong) and Mook (Blackpink’s Lisa in her acting debut) are luckily consistent throughlines, even if Mook’s story often supports Gaitok’s rather than standing on its own.
Season 3 of “The White Lotus” proves that Mike White is still more than capable of providing biting cultural commentary amidst euphoric character moments. But it also arrives carrying the weight of its central characters’ concerns and fears. The show wasn’t originally planned to go this long — remember when it began as a COVID-era miniseries for White to get out of LA to somewhere that wasn’t “punishing” — but has now evolved into a critical and awards darling. With increased pressure and responsibility, it’s unsurprising the show feels like it’s in the midst of a transitional season as it figures out how to balance so many disparate thoughts, ideas, and characters — a sensation exacerbated by the fact so much is riding on the outcome of the remaining episodes.
Perhaps, like the religion so central to the show this year, “The White Lotus” is weighing the karmic outcome of itself in preparation for a rebirth into something else entirely.
“The White Lotus” premieres Sunday, Feb. 16, on HBO and Max.